Finding Her Place
by BellomioneLove
Summary: Hermione, since a young age, has wanted nothing more than to be accepted. To find a sense of pride, for people to finally fear her rather than laugh and spit in her face. In her fourth year of Hogwarts she finds out something completely life changing. This fic is Bellamione. BellaXHermione, Bellatrix/Hermione ! Femmslash, rated M for later chapters!
1. Prologue

-Prologue-

At the tender age of 11 Hermione Granger found herself staring down at the neat scrawl of a curious letter, written in beautiful cursive. She didn't know yet that this letter was the trigger for events that would change her life in great and dangerous ways.

Her face scrunched up in confusion as she first read it, and then smoothed out into an expression filled with curiosity and glee.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL _of_ WITCHCRAFT _and_ WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

 _(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,  
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

Dear Miss Granger,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

After reading thoroughly several times, she ran to her mother and allowed her to read, with desperate hope in her eyes. Her mother smiled softly and showed the letter to her father, who in turn began making the preparations to allow Hermione to go through with this great opportunity.

After contacting the school to confirm acceptance of the placement, Hermione waited for one month in anticipation of joining the magical school. This month couldn't pass fast enough. Hermione wasn't overly eager about the school she had been attending, as her bushy hair and less than girly appearance had never really mixed well with her class-mates. She had great difficulty making friends and preferred to keep to herself, never really talking much, just trying to stay under the radar- away from predators waiting for the prime opportunity to humiliate her.

As a whole this method worked out fairly well for her, She got by, gaining meaningless grades, staying at the top of her class but remaining in the shadows. She was never fearful, however something inside her longed to be feared, she tired of living in the shadows –however safe it was- and decided not long after receiving her letter, that life was about to change for her. She was going to make a name for herself.

She had pondered over this for the many days leading up to the 1st of September and still pondered after waving goodbye to her saddened parents and finding a compartment she could keep to herself. After boarding the train she promptly changed clothes –out of sight of her parents- into a neat pair of black jeans and a cute purple top, before proceeding to spike up her short hair. She had decided on her style not long before leaving for Kings Cross, and now looking down at herself felt reassured that it was the correct choice.

Not long after this 3 young men appeared at the door of her compartment, one with greasy blonde hair, one that was short and quite on the chubby side, and the other tall and lanky. The first boy extended his hand and nodded curtly. "Malfoy, all the other compartments are filled with snivelling idiots, mind if we join you?" he spoke quietly and politely, and after careful consideration she nodded in agreeance. "Did you see the ginger freckly kid and the kid with glasses then? I'm assuming you did, I saw them pass a while ago with a crying boy." "Yeah we saw them, Potter and the Weasley kid. I've no idea who they were with and frankly don't care to know, the boy looked like an idiot anyway" Hermione laughed at the blonde boy sitting next to hers remark "I'm Hermione by the way. Nice to meet you guys" "and you" Malfoy replied snatching the book from her hands to look at the cover, the other two grunted their replies before pulling stacks of food from their pockets. "Defence against the dark arts? Interesting. I think it'll be one of the better classes we get. I already know a couple of spells, my father taught me, I hope we learn some cool hexes to use on the nerds from further down the train" Hermione smirked, resuming her reading. She felt good about Malfoy.

Over the course of the train ride Hermione found out a lot about Malfoy, exchanging little information in return for his wonderful stories surrounding his family. She learnt the names of his friends, Crabbe and Goyle, and a little about them but found them quite boring and mundane in comparison to the platinum blonde boy. When it came to the final journey to Hogwarts, Hermione stuck by her new acquaintances, in the hopes to learn more about the fascinating "pure blood" families.

It didn't take long for them to reach Hogwarts, and crawl shyly into the sight of Professor McGonagall who awaited them inside the enormous, beautiful castle. After some time they were led into what was suitably named the Great Hall, they were led between four gigantic tables littered with students of all ages, wearing varying colours. She watched as her new friends were sorted into their new houses by the talking hat that lay on a stool in front of the teachers table.

"Hermione Granger!" the voice of Professor McGonagall rang throughout the hall, sending shivers of anxiety through Hermione's body. She crept slowly towards the stool not sure what to anticipate.

"Brilliant mind" the hat whispered as it was lowered onto her head. "A burning passion, but what for? Should I sort you into Gryffindor...? No, perhaps not. I see the underlying desires of your mind. You seek great power, and admiration. Respect." The hat rambled to itself for a few minutes, completely deaf to the whispers that broke out and spread like wildfire throughout the hall.

"SLYTHERIN" the hat screamed, so suddenly that Hermione had to grab hold of the stool to stop her from falling in front of the whole school. She blushed lightly, before running over to the cheering table and finding her blonde friend.

The year passed slowly for Hermione. It took a lot of work to build a name for herself, she found herself in trouble on numerous occasions, often with her blonde friend by her side.

By the beginning of her second year at Hogwarts, she found herself becoming quite close with the blonde. Even considering him a best friend, and on a mutual level. They stuck together, both playing an important part in all schemes involving Weasley and Potter.

By the end of year three, Hermione had come further with herself than she ever thought she could. She had a great sense of pride, a terrible hatred for Gryffindor's, who -more often than not- were the reason she would find herself in trouble. She found their overly "courageous" efforts vile, as well as their misplaced pride and lack of working brain cells. She stuck by Malfoy through all his tussles with Potter, Weasley, and eventually the new addition to their group, Lavender Brown.

However the first three years of her Hogwarts education were completed without her knowing about a great part of her life, the very essence of her being.

That changed when she found herself in her fourth year.

 **Authors Note:**

 **Greetings fellow Bellamione lovers! I've read a few good fics for Bellanione, but as an incredible fan of this ship I'm still somewhat disappointed by the small number of them, so I've decided to add one or two myself (depending on how this goes). I don't know how many people still read Bellamione, but I do know that I frequent my favourite fics for the pairing, and overall I'm hoping this story becomes one of those fics that people get enjoyment out of and can follow –at will-.**

 **I'd like to thank you for giving my fic a try, the story hasn't really started at this point but I did need to lay some background for Hermione to help with her character development. I hope you've enjoyed what I have written so far, and I hope the future chapters continue to entertain you.**

 **-BellamioneLove**


	2. Chapter 1 - The Task

Chapter 1 The Task

In the beginning, she was curious.

She had known, obviously, that the Malfoy's were a very respected pureblood family, who followed under the lead of the Dark Lord, who had disappeared after the backfiring of his spell because of Potter. She knew that they remained loyal, ready to serve him whenever he may return.

However, what bothered her was the fact that their practices of the punishment of muggle-born children seemed completely disregarded when it came to how they acted around her. She had witnessed her best friend on numerous occasions being, well, less than disgusted with muggle-borns from other houses during their stay at Hogwarts.

"Don't worry about it Hermione, my father says you'll learn in time."

The only response she had managed to pry from her blonde friend on the matter. It was very strange to her that he wouldn't divulge any other information on the matter, as with their previous schemes he would share every tiny detail with her.

Nevertheless, she pondered over the matter restlessly.

It was only a few days after she received the letter with such a strange response to her questioning of her being muggle-born; that she journeyed to Malfoy manor by apparition with Draco and his father to stay for the second half of the summer leading up to her fourth year in Hogwarts. The invitation had come as a surprise, the letter only stating that the Malfoy family had "urgent matters" to attend to, and that they would require the help of the young woman and their son.

Despite the letter and its invitation being rather strange and sudden she agreed to help with whatever urgent matters they needed to attend to. She saw it as a great opportunity to earn respect among the pureblood family.

In this respect she wasn't wrong.

"As it is the third night of your stay here, Hermione, you should be sufficiently settled. We would like to move onto the urgent matters we discussed briefly in the letter. After we finish dinner we shall move to the lounge and have a drink while we discuss our business."

The Malfoy matriarch smiled at her from the head of the table, her steely blue eyes shining with mischief. Hermione smiled back, resting her knife and fork on her plate briefly to take a drink. "You have excellent taste in food; I don't think I've ever eaten so well in my life."

"It is a trait of pureblood families, Hermione. Brilliant, expensive taste." The Malfoy patron grinned down at her. "You'll get used to it" he laughed.

She wondered if there was something more to the man's words, but decided that if there was any hidden meaning, there would be no finding it with this mysterious family. Instead she settled for smiling widely and finishing her meal with polite haste.

As they all finished their luxurious meal, the family (and Hermione) migrated to the lavish lounge, which doubled as an enormous library. In this room, decorated in mossy greens and dark wooden shelves and furniture, Lucius had a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon brought to them, with four exquisitely detailed wine glasses.

"Down to business then, father?" Draco questioned, taking the offered glass of wine from a small house elf that appeared seemingly from nowhere.

"Yes. It has come to our attention that a series of events are to take place this year, which will ultimately contribute to the return of the Dark Lord." Lucius swirled the liquid in his glass, staring at it absentmindedly.

Draco and Hermione exchanged a puzzled look and relaxed back into the velvet sofa, both taking a sip of the deep red wine their glasses contained.

"What does that mean for us then, sir?" Hermione asked cautiously. She still wasn't sure what to think of the Dark Lord, and whether all the attempts made by his supporters were carried out with false hope; but at the same time she was entirely curious. Not only about what they were like as a community, but, after reading several books and countless articles both glorifying and subjecting the Dark Lord and his followers to immense scrutiny, she felt like she could relate to him on a personal level. She had read of his past, his relationships with people, everything that she could get her hands on, yet still she craved to learn more about the mysterious man, and his immense power.

"Lucius dear, it is close to the time we have been waiting for, but surely it is too early for them to be taking part in the Dark Lords' activities?" the Malfoy matriarch looked on at her husband with an expression that held mild distaste, curiosity, and the rough edge of her motherly instincts.

"It is not an induction darling, it is merely inside work that will be required of them, I'm sure you are aware of how hard it would be to have one of the older people injected into the school. It's damn near impossible, and there needs to be someone keeping an eye on Karkaroff."

"Inside work, father?"

"Yes, as I've said there are very important events set to happen this year and this of course means we will need people monitoring the situation inside Hogwarts. There isn't much I can disclose on the matter at the moment, but we will be having a small conference after attending the world cup to discuss the remainder of what I will need to tell you." Lucius took a breath, taking a sip of wine before resting his glass on the small chestnut coffee table which resided next to his armchair.

"You see, working in the ministry I've caught wind of a very special event taking place this year at Hogwarts. The Triwizard tournament. This event couldn't have come at a better time, there has been a plan created surrounding the Potter boy. The Triwizard tournament will see Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students reside within Hogwarts grounds. Because the ministry will be placing age rules on the tournament, no one under the age of 17 will be allowed to enter. However, using magic Karkaroff should be able to enter the boys' name, and as an underage wizard, Potter's name will be given when the champions are chosen. There will be three trials following this for the champions who are chosen, one from each school plus Potter. What we are focusing on right now is making sure Karkaroff enters the boys name successfully. That is where you two come into play; we will need it reported to us straight away via floo network whether or not Karkaroff is successful. If he is, that is when you will receive your next goals."

Hermione and Malfoy exchanged another brief look, Hermione opting to stare into her wine, before taking another sip, rather that stare at the confused face of her blonde friend. However when next she looked up, Draco's face had morphed into that of an ecstatic school child.

"Hold on, did you say world cup?"

Hermione stood in front of the Malfoy patriarch, in a room that looked as if it was worked in a lot for fitting dresses and occasionally suits.

"This is the room Bellatrix and I used for adjusting clothes. Lucius has asked me to find you a dress for the meeting this morning, and to teach you a spell which you will need to use at the world cup."

Narcissa looked at Hermione with a soft smile, her eyes glazed over and, for a moment, she looked as if she were immersed in fond memories.

"Bellatrix?"

It seemed like such a simple enquiry to Hermione, but she could see in the pained expression held by Narcissa that it bore fruit to painful memories.

"That's another subject you will learn about in time Hermione. Now let's get your dress sorted."

Without explaining anything, Narcissa took Hermione's measurements and began sketching a dress. The sketch was entirely the opposite of minimal, every single small detail draw on was the epitome of perfection. The top of the dress was a heart shaped corset, which tied at the front, with lace decorations flowing from the thick shoulder straps and down the side of the corset. The skirt was of medium length, with many folds and tiny jewels across it.

Just like it was drawn, it was done. Narcissa paid diligent attention to the minor details, using magic to perfect the size of the corset-like dress.

When she was finally finished with the amazing artwork and fine details, Hermione couldn't believe how beautifully elegant the dress turned out to be. Looking at herself in the mirror, she barely recognized herself.

Narcissa brought over some thick black boots, which had steel covered toes, with similar tribal patterns to the lace on her dress carved into them. Putting the boots on, Hermione found that they were comfortable but heavy, and restricted a lot of movement from rising halfway up her calves.

"Do you like the dress, and boots Hermione?"

Narcissa seemed to be extremely hopeful for a positive answer. She smiled widely at Hermione and gestured to the items with a wink.

Hermione did in fact love them. They strayed from the safe zone of clothing she would usually wear, but at the same time they were comfortable, beautiful and something about wearing them felt right, she had a new sense of empowerment she hadn't felt for a while, wearing them.

"I love them. I didn't know boots like these could ever be comfortable."

"You're just like Bellatrix. They really aren't comfortable to normal people just... certain mischievous types."

Narcissa paused for a moment after speaking, as if she were contemplating broadening Hermione's knowledge of the subjects that were seemingly being kept under tight wraps. However, after that moment of pause she waved off the questioning glances Hermione sent her way and quickly tidied the room.

"Now for the spell, it is one I must teach you now so you can use it later, because it _will_ be needed." Narcissa gave Hermione a pointed look, as if urging her to remember everything that was being said. With that Hermione began paying closer attention than before. Whatever spell it was, it seemed important. "The spell I'm going to teach you is 'Tenebris pallium'. What it does, is creates a visual disguise for you, so that other people cannot see your face, or any other features. To cast this spell you must speak the incantation, while gesturing to your body with your wand. Like this."

Narcissa stepped into the middle of the now clear room, and pointed her wand down at her body.

"Tenebris pallium."

As soon as the words left her lips, what appeared to be thick black smoke erupted from the tip of her wand and began surrounding her. Before long Hermione couldn't see Narcissa at all, and she believed that it would stay that way. However after a few seconds the smoke cleared to reveal an individual with deep black robes, and an almost metallic looking face.

Hermione stared for a few seconds, eyes wide with shock and admiration; but before her eyes popped out of her skull from shock Narcissa flicked her wand at the robes, causing them to dissipate.

"I think that's enough staring, time to practice."

A few hours later, Hermione sat at one end of a rather large table with the Malfoy's with her. The rest of the table seating various wizards and witches all dressed equally as elegantly as Hermione.

They were situated in one of the larger dining rooms in the manor, readying to discuss the matter of business with the world cup.

Lucius had discussed with Draco and herself how the events of the meeting would take place, explaining that there would be a brief period of rest before it started so that people could become reacquainted with old friends, and generally just mingle for a while.

Seeing the first few people arrive and hug each other warmly exchanging warm greetings confused Hermione at first. From the perspective of an outsider it was strange, seeing such dark wizards be normal, acting like a large family. Hermione recalled the countless articles and written coverage of the death eaters and their Lord would leave anyone paranoid and scared, yet behind the scenes they were genuinely nice people.

She smiled to herself, feeling a lot better about her chosen path in life. The few doubts and concerns she had over helping the death eaters and –maybe- becoming one flew out the window with the warm atmosphere and handshakes she was receiving.

"Lucius, why are so many people insistent on shaking my hand?"

Hermione wiped her sweaty palm on a napkin she retrieved from below her empty plate.

Her question was met with a soft chuckle and the shaking of a blonde head.

About half an hour after the arrival of the guests, the many house-elf's of the manor brought food and wine to the table, filling all the many glasses around the table with magic, and providing a delicious dessert buffet in the centre of the table, as well as filling everyone's plates with a healthy dinner.

"If I could have your attention!" Lucius stood, gently tapping his glass with a spoon. "Friends, I am sorry to call you all in at such short notice, but events have occurred leading up to the task we must partake. The dark lord has plans for the end of the school year, and until then we have a lot of work to do."

"Firstly, I have received word from within the ministry that Potter and company will be making an appearance at the world cup. Since Barty is in regular contact with the Dark Lord, he will be able to cover the basis or our task in much greater detail, but before we go over the plan I would like to invite you all to eat and drink to your heart's content."

With Lucius' words, everyone around the table began eating, chatting and sipping at wine.

Hermione got into conversations with Crabbe and Goyle's fathers, as well as the man Lucius had addressed as Barty. This man she was sure she recognized, he was very handsome with a short brown beard to match his short brown hair. He wore a black suit, his long trench coat thrown over the back of his chair. She conversed with him easily, talking about spells and history, she did however notice that –like the Malfoy's- any subjects surrounding Bellatrix and muggle-borns were immediately snuck around, bringing the conversation back to the dark lord, or books.

Hermione began to grow impatient with the people she talked with, as they all stuck to the same topics, never really shedding light on things she wanted to know about. Just before her 5th questioning session could take place, Barty stood and commanded the attention of the person Hermione was going to question, as well as everyone else in the room.

"Hello again friends. The dark lord sends his best wishes to you all, and to those kept prisoner in Azkaban. He wanted me to tell you all not to worry, soon is the time that life is destined to start looking up for all of us. We must prepare for this time, our lord grows stronger every day and soon he will return. The task that we will proceed with is to strike fear into the hearts of our enemies. We will attend the world cup quidditch match that is coming up, individually of course. After the match is over our instructions are to wreak havoc. It's a simple enough plan; we will meet in the nearby forest after the match so that we can all apparate, or be apparate in –in the case of Draco and Hermione- together. There will be aurors, so it's vital that everyone play as safe as possible. Just stick to fires and minor injuries and everything should be fine."

Barty stopped speaking and sat back down, before gesturing to Lucius. Lucius stood and gave a brief speech to everyone saying thanks and confirming the time for the meeting the day immediately following the world cup.

With the plans sorted and everyone clear on what would be happening, the meeting drew to a close and slowly everyone left.

Hermione found her way to bed shortly after. She had been offered a drink in the lounge with the Malfoy family but opted to give them some space instead.

Being scared wasn't a feeling the really registered with Hermione anymore. Her view on fear had changed quite dramatically over the period of her attending Hogwarts, and even more so since the influence of the Malfoy's crept into her life.

Yet even with the great influences on her life, which were maturing and shaping her as a person, she still found time to ponder and question over the things that had happened to her and were happening to her. She thought of how incredibly close she had been, how attached she was to her parents before, in comparison to how she now barely acknowledged their existence. It didn't bother her, but it did continue to confuse her.

She spent no more than ten minutes staring at the green satin of the sheets on her chestnut four-poster bed, before her thoughts turned again to the task set for her. She smiled as she thought about it. She was excited, but more than that.

She was ready.


	3. Chapter 2 - The World Cup

Chapter 2 The World Cup

Hermione awoke at 5 o'clock sharp the morning of the world cup match. She had agreed, with Draco, to meet in the garden for duelling practice, which they would spend an hour on, before cleaning up for breakfast at 7, to leave at 8 o'clock in order to spend some time in Diagon Alley before heading to the world cup.

She peeled the covers from her warm body and went to stand before the mirror. She often wondered what it would be like to have a more toned and mature body, but it wasn't something that held her attention for long. She stepped into the shower, after grabbing an old pair of black jeans and a loose t-shirt, deciding it better to shower before and after her duelling session. She washed slowly; enjoying the feel of the hot water trickling over her shoulders, but before too long began to wash her short hair. It was only while washing her hair, staring up at the showerhead, that she began to wonder what kind of magic was used to power wizarding homes, seeing as they didn't seem to understand what electric was.

She continued to theorize what kind of spells or magic it could be after she vacated the shower, dried and dressed herself. Surely it couldn't be the home owners who powered the magic that ran through the houses, maybe it was the house elves?

Still thinking about house elves powering houses, she walked from her bedroom down the hall of the west wing and down the grand staircase leading to the main hall.

She found Draco just outside the front doors, looking over the garden with a smile on his face, wand in hand.

"Are you alright Draco?" Hermione asked, walking toward the blonde boy, drawing her wand from her pocket.

Draco turned to look at her, again with a smile on his face. "I'm great, did you study spells last night as well? I think I've got some good ones, Dad said he'll teach us some more powerful spells later." He began walking as he talked, leading Hermione to one of the massive lawns to the side of his family's property.

"I had a look in some books but I already know a lot of spells so I should be fine... Will your father be joining us to supervise our duelling?"

"Of course Hermione, he's just coming a bit later; he said we could practice out here for a bit though first."

Instead of stopping at the centre of the lawn like Hermione had expected Draco led her further across the lawn. She held a confused look on her face until sometime later she realized that they were approaching a forest. "Practicing on the trees then, safety I suppose" Draco winked at her and began throwing hexes at one of the thicker trees nearby,

"First one to break a tree buys the other whatever they want at Diagon Alley later!"

Several do-over's and one dejected Draco later, Hermione finally spotted Lucius, who, in his tiring of waiting had conjured himself a chair to sit on; and had house-elves bring him a drink and snacks.

"Sorry, Lucius we got a bit carried away" Hermione said, after running to join him.

"We sort of bet on training and I owe Hermione whatever she wants now..." he trailed off, looking down with a blush on his cheeks. Lucius laughed and playfully slapped Draco on the back.

"Get used to women winning, son, it happens all through your life"

With a few laughs, the group headed back to the manor to wash up before breakfast.

After jumping in the shower -again- and putting on the dress that Narcissa made her, Hermione made her way to the smaller dining room for breakfast. She sat in her usual place (on one of the sides of the table across from Draco) and found a full English breakfast awaiting her. Abiding by the families rules, she waited for Lucius to sit down before starting her breakfast.

"Father, what are we doing at Diagon Alley?" Draco asked around a mouthful of toast.

"We will be meeting with Barty in Bourgan and Burkes to give him his world cup ticket, as he was unable to get one for himself. Also, we will be visiting the bank to store something that is of great value to our cause, it needs to be kept safe and our lord has chosen to stow it in our family vault." With this, he pulled a small black velvet drawstring pouch from his pocket, laying it on the table for Hermione and Draco to see.

"You two should also look in Flourish and Blotts for some books. Especially you Draco, I hear you need to brush up on your offensive spells." She smiled and turned to Hermione. "We will be having duelling classes for Draco during the winter holidays; we were hoping you would also attend, of course."

"Definitely, I'd love to- I mean, if it isn't a bother of course." She grinned as the three shook their heads.

For the remainder of breakfast, Draco and Hermione talked about what spells they had used on the trees, and what kind of books they would try to find. The conversation had them occupied right up until the moment before they were to leave, when Lucius turned to talk to them.

"We will be travelling by floo to Bourgan and Burkes, where Barty is waiting for us, after we give him the ticket we will proceed as planned. Hermione, if you would like to go ahead we will follow you shortly. Just throw a pinch of floo powder into the fire, step in when it turns green and say your destination clearly."

Hermione smiled nervously and stepped forward, taking a pinch of the chalky green powder like Lucius had said and throwing it onto the fire. She smiled at Draco, stepping into the fireplace. The fire was pleasantly warm, not burning her in any way. She shook her head, confused, before shrugging to herself.

"Bourgan and Burkes" the words slipped smoothly from her mouth, followed by an odd feeling of compression came over her body, twisting her vision in strange ways. The sensation left as quickly as it came, and in mere moments she found herself in a small shop filled with lots of strange, dark looking instruments. She giggled to herself; it did seem like a place the Malfoy's would choose for a meeting.

"Hermione! Hello! Are young Draco and Lucius to follow or is it just you?"

Turning to her right she came face to face with Barty, smiling away, brown hair as messy as when last she had seen him.

"They should be following any moment now I should imagine, Lucius said they'd be here shortly."

It was in fact, only a few moments until the fireplace which she hadn't noticed before lit up with green flames and Draco stepped out, shortly followed by Lucius.

"Barty my old friend how are you?" Lucius stepped forward and enveloped the man in a warm hug.

"Fine Lucius, quite good actually! Our lord regains strength by the day!" He smiled widely at each of them in turn, eyes sparkling with happiness.

"Wonderful, here you are my friend, I'm sorry we can't stay to chat but we are very busy, it's a shame you can't come with us but I suppose with your circumstances it can't be helped. Tell the Dark Lord everything so far is according to plan, I've had response from everyone reporting that they were able to arrange the world cup tickets so everything should be fine. I'm sure Kakaroff won't be straying far from Krum even with it being the holidays so we will ensure that the message you wanted passed on gets to him. "

"Okay, thank you Lucius, I'll be off then. We shall see you at the world cup, take care"

"It was nice seeing you, take care guys."

Lucius led Hermione and Draco from the shop and through the little alleyway back to the main shops after their short goodbye's to Barty. After leading them to the main shops Lucius smiled and disappeared off towards Gringotts.

"I guess we should start looking for those books then!" Hermione said, pushing open the door to the shop. The insides were lined with books, each case with a heading indicating what kinds of books were stored in the case.

"I'll go look for dark arts books, if you go look for books on wounds and healing." Draco offered, drifting towards the cases entitled "Dark Arts". Hermione sighed and set off into the shop, carefully noting the different books the shop offered. She passed by the history shelves mores slowly, one book with its spine adorning a brass plaque caught her eye, but she decided to focus on the task at hand and return to inspect it later.

She picked up one book which contained various spells of varied degrees of healing, another book which contained different healing potions for different injuries and finally another potions book which had various different kinds of potions in it.

After stacking the books in one arm, she carefully made her way back to the history shelf. Upon finding the book that had caught her eye earlier, she eased the book from the shelves and placed it on top of her other books in order to look at the cover, which read.

" _ **Darkest Wizards in Recent History, an Intimate Study"**_

With no indication as to who wrote or published the book. The front cover simply had five crests on it, with a brass plaque underneath stating which families they belonged to.

 _Riddle, Black, Lestrange, Lutrinae, and Yaxley._

Hermione recognized all but one of the names on the cover; the four that she knew, were connected to the dark lord and his death eaters. This alone was enough to interest her; she concluded that since the other four were connected, the fifth surely would be too.

"Draco, I found a couple of potions books and one spell book on healing, but I also found this book on dark wizards that I'm really interested in, would you buy it for me?"

Draco took a moment to inspect the book, before nervously peering out the door.

"I'm not sure I should get that book for you Hermione, I don't know if my father would be okay with that."

"You said you'd buy me anything though, a bet is a bet" she smiled brightly at him "this book seems really interesting, please?"

"Oh fine I'll keep my word, but my father can't know about it so I'll have to buy something else for you while we're here at Diagon Alley."

After a quick one armed hug, Draco took the books and paid for them, thanking the person at the desk for the books.

Outside they were met to a very busy street, and Lucius beckoning them over.

"Shall we continue then? I'm sure Draco is readying his Galleons to keep up with that bet"

After meeting with Lucius again, they had slowly begun looking through different shops; Hermione acquired many sweets and clothes, much to the enjoyment of Lucius and Draco. Once they had finished looking around Diagon Alley, they returned to the manor.

They stopped to talk to Narcissa for a little while, after putting all of their new belongings away and getting themselves ready for the world cup.

"The portkey is in the Garden dear" Narcissa stated, as they readied to leave. "Do explain to them before you attempt to leave, neither have travelled by portkey before.

Hermione exchanged looks of confusion with Draco, who after a moment shrugged and left for the garden with his Father. Hermione followed them to the lawn they had walked through to get to their practice area. In the centre, a black cane lay on the grass.

"Do not touch it until I tell you to or we'll have problems. This is our portkey; it is a method of transportation in the wizarding world, that's all you need to know. On the count of three we will all touch the portkey. 1...2...3!"

On Lucius' count the trio grabbed hold of the cane. The feeling that came with grabbing hold of the portkey was almost indescribable. The feeling of pressure from travelling by floo was there, as well as everything spinning and after a few moments, hitting the ground rather painfully next to a disgruntled blonde.

"Landing can be a bit rough by the way" Lucius laughed and helped them both up. "We'll need to make way to our tent to 'set up for the night' if you know what I mean. Come on, this way."

Again Hermione and Draco followed Lucius, this time through rows and rows of white tents. They could see the stadium from the tent they stopped in front of, but other than that Hermione was rather unimpressed. The little white tent was, well, small and rather far from the grandeur that usually came with the Malfoy family.

Nevertheless, she stepped inside to be met with a larger than life kitchen, with bathroom, bedrooms, dining room, and lounge area to boot.

"I think, since we've had such excitement and we all got up early this morning that the time we have before the match would be best utilized by resting. We have a lot to do later so, make yourselves at home and get some sleep."

Agreeing with Lucius, Hermione made her way to an unoccupied room to try and get some sleep. The room, which was again, larger, than expected; was decorated in brilliant silvers and greens, alike her house colour. A double bed with green sheets decorated with silver snakes in various positions dominated the centre of the room. Paying little attention to the detail in the far away corners of the room, Hermione made her way straight to the bed, climbed in and within minutes, fell asleep.

Seemingly not long after Hermione had fallen asleep, she was roused from her comfortable slumber by Draco, who practically dragged her through the tent after she had straightened up.

"Time to go Hermione! We have a match to go see!" was the only thing he had said to her before he had dragged her outside to walk with Lucius. They had had a little conversation with Potter as well, once they had entered the stadium and started to make their way towards the ministers' box, where they had been invited to watch from. Their little conversation turned out to be uninteresting however, and didn't linger in Hermione's mind for very long.

Once they had made their way to the minister's box, they had exchanged pleasantries with the minister himself before seating themselves in comfortable chairs to watch over the match, which was when Draco got really interested and his excitement almost killed Lucius and Hermione, on account of Draco's sometimes flailing limbs when the teams came close to scoring.

Ireland and Bulgaria were the teams that played in the match. Ireland had started off strong, scoring 3 times earning themselves 30 points before the Bulgarians came back with a goal. A short time after Ireland's keeper ran into some trouble and had to have medical attention before he could continue to play. No more than 15 minutes later Ireland were leading with 130 points to Bulgaria's 10, two penalties followed along with Krum the Bulgarian seeker being injured; and in the end Ireland won 170 – 160.

Hermione didn't care much for quidditch, but with what happened in the match she just watched she concluded that it was actually pretty good entertainment.

After the match they spent some more time talking to the minister about uninteresting things before exiting the stadium. Lucius led them to a secluded area out of the view of wizards and witches who were also exiting the stadium. Once they were all safely hidden, Lucius offered his arms to Draco and Hermione, before apparating to the place of their meeting.

"Now that everyone is here we'll need to get ready. You all know the spell, disguises first, plans after."

"Tenebris pallium." Hermione whispered, waving her wand down at her body. Thick black smoke erupted from the tip of her wand, enveloping her. After performing the spell she looked around, to see an army of look-a-likes. She found Draco and stood by him, assuming that Lucius would be nearby.

"Okay everyone. I feel that you are all sufficiently experienced for what we're here to do. We're here simply to wreak havoc on the aftermath of the world cup, destroy what you can, injure everyone you see that isn't in 'uniform' when everything is up in flames we come back to this clearing and disapparate. We aren't far from the tents here but we're all going to apparate to the other side and make our way back here, alright? I will be apparating Hermione in, if you'd come here, and Draco will be with Lucius. Everyone ready? Let's go."

Hermione moved over to Barty, recognizing him by his voice. She held onto his arm tightly, moments later finding her in chaos.

Keeping the task of moving in a straight line side by side with Barty, she began sending hexes and curses in every directing, setting tents on fire and creating explosions as far and wide as she could. The stretch was tiring, and seemed without a cause when she saw just how many tents and people there were. Nevertheless she kept at what she was doing.

Before long, the death eaters were met with violence from the aurors in the area; many people became involved in duels while their partners continued on attacking the more inexperienced witches and wizards, destroying everything in their path.

It wasn't until near the end of their mission that Hermione and subsequently Barty ran into a bit of trouble. The forest was in sight, the vast majority of the tents lay in ruins, their owners either escaped or injured and laying nearby their tent or family.

Barty suggested quietly that they take a breather, and that he had something he needed to do. Hermione had nodded and sat on a barrel that surprisingly was almost fully intact.

"Morsmordre" Barty pointed his wand to the sky, chanting the incantation clearly. Hermione watched in wonder as the dark mark appeared in the sky, declaring the death eaters presence in the wasteland.

"YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" The sudden scream of a boy startled the pair. Hermione turned quickly, raising her wand. "Stop, boy. No closer." She hissed, circling him where he had stopped,

Hermione stepped closer towards the boy, curious to see his face. He had an air about him that felt familiar.

"Who are you!?" he asked, his hooding falling back onto his shoulders.

Hermione screamed internally, of all places for Potter to show up, he just had to show up here.

"That is none of your business." She growled, unsure of what she should do. She couldn't gravely injure him, as he would be a necessary presence in their future plans.

In the dark, Hermione saw the twitch of Potters hand on his back pocket just in time to duck out of the way of an expelliarmus. She threw herself to the side, throwing a quick bombarda his way. It hit his legs, a bit less accurate than Hermione would normally be, but she had to be careful with him.

The blow knocked his legs from underneath him and he fell forwards to the ground. Before Hermione could throw any more spells she noticed the two figures running towards them and backed off.

"COME BACK!" Potter yelled, scrambling to get to his feet, but Hermione turned on her heels and ran for the shadows, hoping to find Barty. It took a few minutes, but she found him a ways away waiting for her.

"Sorry Hermione. I would've stayed close by, but I probably would have killed him" He laughed and rested his hand on Hermione's shoulder, apparating away to the clearing.


	4. Chapter 3 - Return To Hogwarts

Chapter 3 Return To Hogwarts

Hermione slept soundly the night of the task. After she had returned to the clearing with Barty, a vast majority of the death eaters congregated before apparating to Malfoy manor in order to celebrate their small victory. Draco and Hermione had taken part in the drinking, the feast and the conversations and partying that followed.

It wasn't until the next morning that, after being awake for a while, Hermione found herself subject to questioning by the Malfoy's.

Hermione had been sitting in the larger lounge with Draco reading the books they acquired a Diagon alley when Narcissa and Lucius burst in, a sullen looking Barty trailing behind.

"What on earth happened last night? Why did we not find out until just now of your endeavours with Potter?" Narcissa stared directly at Hermione as she spoke, concern evident in her crinkled features.

Lucius, who had previously been lurking behind Narcissa, stepped forward.

"Tell us what happened."

He spoke rather sternly, as he paced about in front of the burning fireplace that warmed the semi-circle of chairs surrounding it.

"Well Barty had said there was something he needed to do, he disappeared off after conjuring the dark mark and I hadn't noticed. It wasn't until I realized he was gone that Potter approached me, he must have misplaced his bravery again, and I held him back until his friends showed up then ran after Barty."

Lucius nodded in response to her quick retelling, seating himself in one of the large armchairs and beckoning Barty and Narcissa over.

"You aren't hurt or anything then, Hermione?" Narcissa asked, sitting next to the puzzled looking brunette.

"Nope, it's not like he could land a good spell in my direction anyway."

With the Malfoy patron and matriarch satisfied that she hadn't given any indication as to who she was and that she wasn't hurt, Hermione was left to a wide-eyed, open mouthed Draco and several demands for a retelling of her escapades with the golden boy.

The rest of the summer passed peacefully for Hermione. Together with Draco she learned many new offensive and defensive skills in order to make their task for the year as easy as possible.

The peace of the last few days of their summer, however, was broken into tiny pieces as the day they were set to leave for Hogwarts finally once again arrived.

With all of their belongings, new and old, collected and packed into their trunks Hermione and Draco sat one more time with Lucius and Narcissa in the privacy of Malfoy manor. The sat in a room Hermione had never been in before. The room was overly large and elegantly decorated, with marble floors, giant bookcases stretching all the way up one wall and covering every inch that wasn't a door way. A large table took up approximately one half of the room, while three large couches surrounded a low wooden coffee table, where the four sat.

"There isn't much we really need you to think about doing at the moment..." Lucius began, briefly sliding his wand from the can grasped firmly in his hand to light the fire before them. "Right now we just need you to keep an eye on Kakaroff. As soon as Harry is entered into the tournament, we need you to contact us."

"Yes, father. How will we be contacting you?" Draco asked, sitting up a little bit straighter than before.

"I've taken the liberty of having some floo powder packed in each of your trunks, you won't be able to transport yourself via the floo network undetected but you will however be able to talk to us through it. We'll have someone standing by at all times in the main library."

With nothing left to discuss and the Hogwarts express waiting for them, Draco and Hermione grasped hold of the wrists of the elder Malfoy's, apparating straight onto the platform, with the luggage dropped off moments later by one of the house elves.

"I'll go find a compartment" Hermione said, excusing herself after bidding farewell to Lucius and Narcissa. She wanted Draco to have a few moments with his family alone before having to leave. Not five minutes later, however, Draco marched into the compartment and slide the door closed before pulling the small blind over the window.

With their compartment closed off to everyone else Draco sat opposite Hermione, he then drew a small moving figure from his bag before enlarging it and casting a levitating charm on it.

"I brought this for practice" he stated offhandedly, pulling a book from his bag and opening it to a marked page. "I've been trying this new spell, all it says in the book is 'Expulso' it doesn't list wand movements or anything."

Hermione cast a silencing spell on their compartment, then pulled the book she had asked Draco to buy her from her bag and opened it to the contents page; looking up at the small human shaped object after she had done so.

"Expulso" she said, forcefully flicking her wand at the object as she did so, watching as the spell hit the object. For a second it seemed as if the spell had just been absorbed, but mere milliseconds later the object exploded into a million tiny pieces before re-assembling itself and taking the form of what Hermione could only assume was a dummy once more.

"It's just a little flick of the wrist." She smirked, turning to the first page of the book, satisfied with Draco's dumbfounded confusion.

Paying no more attention to Draco, Hermione began reading the first few interesting looking paragraphs in the book.

 _ **The Rise of the Dark Lord**_

 _Lord Voldemort spent fourteen years before the War gathering followers in witches and wizards who called themselves, collectively Death Eaters. Some were supportive of his cause to dominate Muggles and muggle-borns; while others were greedy for domination, wealth and fame; and yet others joined the Dark Lord out of fear. Voldemort considered them more like servants than friends or family. They freely used the unforgivable curses and killed mercilessly and indiscriminately._

 _At some point around this time, Voldemort greatly enhanced his skills in Legilimency to the point that he became known as the greatest Legilimens in the world. Hence, Voldemort could read, control and unhinge the minds of others, and could almost always tell when he was being lied to._

 _ **First Wizarding War**_

 _The Dark Mark, Voldemort's symbol that first appeared during the First Wizarding War._

 _In 1970, Voldemort started the first wizarding war by taking advantage of the wizarding world's greatest weakness: the beings and creatures that they had outcast. The Dark Lord recruited the giants who had long ago been driven by wizards into the mountains, and werewolves, who were persecuted by most witches and wizards. Many feared the goblins would also join him, as they were restricted from wand use, but it never happened. In fact, Voldemort would murder a family of goblins near Nottingham at some point during the War, for an unknown reason._

 _Aurors were authorised to use unforgivable curses on Death Eaters without warning and suspects were sometimes handed over to the Dementors without a Wizengamot trial. Many innocent people were locked away. For many years after, people were even afraid to speak his name, and he was referred to as_ _"You-Know-Who"_ _or_ _"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."_

Hermione read over these paragraphs quickly, she had prior knowledge of most of what the text could tell her so far, though she felt the description of the Death Eaters to be rather unfair considering how friendly they were to one another and herself, a muggle-born.

 _ **Captured, Killed in Battle, Murdered? Voldemort's closes recorded followers.**_

 _Bellatrix Black – Seepages 42-68 – Pleaded guilty in court of being Lord Voldemort's closest sergeant. Currently held in Azkaban._

 _Rodulphus and Rabastan Lestrange – See pages 69-86 - Found guilty of murder, and torture on behalf of Lord Voldemort; currently held in Azkaban._

 _Aileana and Kai Lutrinae – See pages 87-101 – Found guilty of following Lord Voldemort; killed during Auror raid on their property._

 _Alecto and Amycus Carrow – See pages 102-122 – Found guilty of murder and torture on behalf of Lord Voldemort; currently held in Azkaban._

The short description following the names of the Lutrinae's left Hermione feeling mildly distressed for reasons she couldn't quite hold down long enough to decipher. Something about "killed during Auror raid" didn't sit right with Hermione. She hadn't heard of any specific raids on houses during the war, certainly not with recorded deaths anyway.

She glanced up at Draco, who still held his wand firmly in hand trying to perfect the spell that Hermione had previously performed with ease. She watched him struggle for a moment, contemplating whether or not it would be wise to question Draco about the so called "Auror raid"; when he had been so concerned with his father knowing about the book in the first place. Taking that fact into account, Hermione decided it would be best to leave it and work her way through the book. Surely it wouldn't be listed without some kind of explanation later on.

Diving head first into reading the book, Hermione managed to read a good 40 pages before eventually Draco bothered her into helping him with the spell, which he still had not mastered by the end of the journey to Hogwarts even with the help of the young witch.

After the train had grinded to a halt and everyone had proceeded to shuffle their way onto the platform, Hermione grabbed Draco's wrist and dragged him through the crowd. The climbed into one of the waiting carriages, shortly followed by Crabbe and Goyle who seemed more interested in the stacks of cakes in their arms than Hermione and Draco.

After a slow trip to the castle, complete with horrifying mouth vacuuming skills and a large amount of cakes they were finally able to leave the carriage

The scene that followed proved all to amusing for Draco.

The two were walking in close proximity to Potter and his friends, keeping an eye on them and trying to eavesdrop, when a flying water bomb whizzed through the air, exploding on Ron's head, drenching a good amount of his upper body. The boy's face turned as red as his hair, but before Hermione could start laughing another water bomb burst near her feet sending a considerable tidal wave over Potter's feet and hers. She turned to glare at Peeves; the troublemaking ghost bowed at her and cackled. A few seconds later McGonagall came dashing into the hall; she skidded on the slippery surface near Harry and grabbed hold of Hermione to steady herself.

Hermione tensed at the old woman's clumsy grip and glared pulling away from her in order to brush herself off and dry her clothing. McGonagall seemingly ignored Hermione's glare, choosing instead to tell off Peeves and usher the students into the great hall.

"I can't believe she touched you" Draco said, after making silly retching noises while they walked.

"I just want to get this over with, I need to take a bath" Hermione pouted, a bout of tiredness coming over her.

Hermione tried her best to fend off the tiredness attempting to consume her during the short welcome from Dumbledore and the feast that appeared shortly after. She found the she couldn't eat much, as the feeling of fatigue that had lingered around the edges of her being had began creeping towards her core, hoping to take hold of her and not let go until she slept a thousand years.

The thought of sleeping for so long pleased her hazy brain.

Once the final crumbs of food had been demolished by hungry mouths, and the plates disappeared leaving behind only drinks on the long tables, Dumbledore rose to speak to them again. The dull buzz of chatter between house members died down, leaving the Slytherin's staring up at Dumbledore with barely hidden boredom.

"So!" said Dumbledore, his eyes sweeping back and forth across the room as he smiled down at all the students seated there." Now that you all should have satisfied thirst and hunger, I'd like to ask for your undivided attention, only for a short while now.

"As ever, I would like to remind you all that the Forest in the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year. It is also my painful duty to inform you that the inter-house Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

Hermione smiled faintly, not really enjoying quidditch herself this fact didn't bother her, unlike most other people in the room, who wouldn't know why the cup had been cancelled. Hermione glanced over at Draco, watching as he straightened his posture. This would bother him, she knew, but he took his job seriously and didn't let his disappointment show to anyone.

Dumbledore continued, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy – but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts-"

But at that moment the doors to the Great Hall burst open, revealing a man leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black travelling cloak. Everyone in the great hall turn to stare at the stranger, eyes following him as he walked up to the teachers table.

The man's face was covered in all kinds of marks, and he had one eye replaced by what Hermione could only guess was a magical replacement.

As the man walked up to Dumbledore he extended his hand, which Dumbledore met half way between them. The muttered to each other inaudibly for a few minutes before the man left to sit at the large table.

"May I introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." Said Dumbledore brightly into the silence. "Professor Moody."

Hermione fought off the blurriness creeping into her vision. She wondered to herself when they would be allowed to leave, and hoped it would be soon; though she knew it would not be.

"As I was saying," Dumbledore said, smiling at the sea of students before him "we are to have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event which has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

A moment of excited whispering followed the announcement, which quickly quietened in order for Dumbledore to continue speaking.

"The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago, as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry – Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the Tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities – until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the Tournament was discontinued.

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to re-instate the Tournament none of which have been very successful. However, our own Department of International Magical Co-operation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that, this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger."

A few of the Slytherin's, including Draco and Hermione sniggered at this, knowing all too well what kinds of tasks could possibly take place.

"The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard cup, if they are 17 or older, the prize being a thousand galleons as well as the glory of their school."

The rest of Dumbledore's words fell on closed ears, as Hermione had slipped into her own little world thinking about what she had heard.

She finally understood how it would be difficult to enter Potter's name, and why the death eaters needed Kakaroff to do it.

Hermione exchanged quiet words with Draco on the subject while Dumbledore finished his speech, and raced from the great hall as soon as they were dismissed.

They had spells to learn, potions to brew, and classes to prepare for.

 _ **Authors Note:**_

 _ **Some of the story line may seem a little confusing at the moment but rest assured it will become crystal clear in future chapters.**_

 _ **I will refrain from explaining anything at the moment as it would lead to massive spoilers, but what is in store should be a nice surprise.**_

 _ **I will be moving shortly, I know not many people follow this story but for those of you that do I'd just like to apologize in advanced for slow updates, I have no idea when I will be moving, or when I will have internet in my new apartment, so again sorry in advanced.**_

 _ **BellamioneLove**_


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